Parrikar Govt May Introduce Yoga In School Curriculum

Panaji: The BJP-led government in Goa is toying with the idea of introducing ‘yoga’ as part of value education in the curriculum of the state board.

“The syllabus of the Goa board of secondary and higher secondary education has become easy compared to CBSE. We will improve the syllabus by giving thrust on quality education in the curriculum,” Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told reporters on Thursday.

Parrikar said the concept of value education has been incorporated in the syllabus which includes knowledge on personal hygiene, importance of following traffic rules, civic sense and yoga. “The composite package of the value education is being prepared by the experts. A team of 20-25 people who are experts in this field are on their job,” the chief minister said.

He said the entire package would be placed before the people for their feedback. Stating the need to improve the syllabus, Parrikar said that the increasing passing percentage of students for board exam means that the students are either getting intelligent, teachers are teaching well or the question papers are set easy.

He recalled that during his school days, achieving 60-65 per cent marks was considered as a big achievement. “But these years, the percentage has suddenly gone up,” Mr. Parrikar commented.

The chief minister said that the government is busy preparing the concept on how to improve the quality of education in the state which would be placed before the stakeholders. “I will have to throw open the idea to the people; but for that I need to have a fair idea of how to go ahead with the value education. We are currently formulating that idea,” he said.